803.05 Obstacles and Relief
A. Obstacles to a Stance or Throwing Motion: With the exception of casual obstacles to a stance as described in 803.05 B, a player is not allowed to move any obstacle on the course. No relief is granted from park equipment (such as signs, trash cans, picnic tables, etc), which is considered part of the course. A player is allowed to request that other people remove themselves and/or their belongings from the player's stance or line of play. A player must choose the stance which results in the least movement of any obstacle. Once a legal stance is taken, the player may not move an obstacle in any way in order to make room for a throwing motion. It is legal for a player's throwing motion to cause incidental movement of an obstacle.

B. Casual Obstacles to a Stance: A player may obtain relief only from the following obstacles that are in the stance or run-up area: casual water, loose leaves or debris, broken branches no longer connected to a tree, motor vehicles, harmful insects or animals, players' equipment, people, or any item or area specifically designated by the director before the round. The player must first attempt to remove the obstacle. If it is impractical to move the obstacle, the player's lie may be relocated to the nearest lie which is no closer to the hole, is on the line of play, and is not more than five meters from the original lie, as agreed to by a majority of the group or an official (unless greater casual relief is announced by the director).

C. Optional Relief: A player may declare that he or she is taking optional relief. The lie may then be relocated to a new lie that is no closer to the hole, and on the line of play. The original throw plus one penalty throw are counted in the player's score.

D. In situations where it is unclear if an object may be moved or other relief obtained, it shall be determined by a majority of the group or an official.

E. A player shall receive one penalty throw, without a warning, for violation of an obstacle or relief rule.

F. A player who purposely damages anything on the course shall receive two penalty throws, without a warning, if observed by two or more players of the group or an
official. The player may also be disqualified from the tournament, in accordance with Section 3.3 of the Competition Manual.

i suppose that one good time to use this would be if you are 20' deep into the thickest brush you've ever seen and can't even overhand out. i think i've been in that situation once but i had forgotten about this option.

if you have used it, what was some of the situations where you needed it?

skunk, you didn't have to use Optional Relief you could have just done this

Quote:

B. Casual Obstacles to a Stance: A player may obtain relief only from the following obstacles that are in the stance or run-up area: casual water, loose leaves or debris, broken branches no longer connected to a tree, motor vehicles, harmful insects or animals, players' equipment, people, or any item or area specifically designated by the director before the round. The player must first attempt to remove the obstacle. If it is impractical to move the obstacle, the player's lie may be relocated to the nearest lie which is no closer to the hole, is on the line of play, and is not more than five meters from the original lie, as agreed to by a majority of the group or an official (unless greater casual relief is announced by the director).

once maybe twice. both times, the disc was buried in super thick evil thorn-filled schule. i was not trying to bleed to death on the course.

I never did this but agreed in a round of doubles to allow the other team to play from behind the bush of thorns their shot had landed in. I also agreed to no penalty stroke because they were having a bad enough round. The bush was about 7 feet high and I made them put their lie right up against the back of the bush. Their shot still sucked but without the blood.

I never have, as I feel that the situation must be absolutely hopeless to make use of the optional relief rule practical, and I've never personally found one. In many cases when you're in nasty schule, going back on the line of play is just going to put you in the same crap, only further back.

In 99% of cases, using this rule is a bad idea. You are essentially taking a stroke to go backwards on a direct line. You're almost always better off pitching laterally or even laterally backwards to get out of the crap that you're in.